Under these circumstances, it took Nawaki and his team only two days and three nights to reach the first bandit stronghold mentioned in their mission intelligence.
Of course, the price for this speed was that all three of them, including Nawaki, were mentally and physically exhausted.
Although they weren't at the point where they couldn't fight, in their current state, they could at best exert only forty or fifty percent of their strength.
Even Nawaki was no exception.
As the one with the most chakra and the best physical condition, he had been the one to keep watch for most of the journey.
After finding a hidden cave, Nawaki said, "Mikoto, this time, I'll have to ask you to be on guard."
"Mm, don't worry."
Mikoto Uchiha patted her chest in assurance.
Although she hadn't awakened her Sharingan yet, after these two days and three nights, she felt she had gained a lot of experience.
"If there were ninjas, I couldn't be so sure."
"But C-rank missions almost never involve ninja combat. If it's just ordinary people, I'll spot them the moment they enter a thirty-meter radius around us."
"Okay."
A trace of unease flashed through Nawaki's mind, but he quickly pushed the thought away.
This mission had been accepted for them by Sensei Li.
Based on his understanding of his teacher during this time, he was a person who strongly disliked trouble.
Also, he seemed to have a bit of a mischievous streak.
He wouldn't proactively remind him of things, but would wait until he had fallen into a trap before telling him why he shouldn't have done it that way.
At first glance, this mission seemed to have nothing out of the ordinary.
But Nawaki couldn't be sure if he had stepped into a trap somewhere along the way.
It would be fine if he were alone; he was confident he could handle most crises.
But with Mikoto and Rin, he didn't want them to get hurt because of his mistakes.
…
"Huh?"
Just as Nawaki's team was resting, Li Anshi suddenly let out a soft sound of surprise and looked up into the distance.
There, he sensed his Flying Thunder God mark.
If he remembered correctly, up until now, the only marks he had left, aside from the ones on the road and on the three of them, were on Tsunade.
In other words, Tsunade was now within his sensory range.
"Is Tsunade's mission in the Land of Rain?"
The location of their mission was still within the borders of the Land of Fire.
However, it was not very far from the border with the Land of Rain.
Recently, because of the emergence of a leader like Hanzo of the Salamander, the ninjas of the Rain had an unprecedented will to challenge the five great villages and join the ranks of the "great ninja villages."
Therefore, the ninjas of the Rain had been having skirmishes with the bordering Land of Lightning, Land of Earth, and Land of Fire.
And it was because of these skirmishes that the ordinary people of the three countries living on the border were not living well, often having to endure the aftershocks of the battles.
Unlucky villagers were directly caught in the crossfire and ended up dead.
Of the survivors, some fled their villages and went to safer places to live.
Others gathered together with the many who had been affected by the fighting, occupied a certain key road, and robbed passing merchant caravans to survive.
The three groups of bandits that Nawaki and the others needed to eliminate were formed from these villagers.
In fact, in the ninja world, the ones who were most often suppressed by ninjas were these bandits formed by inexperienced villagers.
The experienced ones, when robbing a caravan, would not directly plunder them, but would negotiate with them, letting them pass after receiving some benefits.
In this way, they gained a good reputation, and the merchants of the caravans were reluctant to spend more money to post bandit suppression missions.
Without anyone posting missions in the ninja villages, the ninjas would not come to clear out the bandits.
After all, to limit the ninjas, the five great nations basically had regulations that, unless on a mission, they were forbidden from using their power to obtain supplies.
Without being suppressed, these bandits would live a very comfortable life.
Only the bandits formed by inexperienced refugees would cause greater losses to the caravans.
The merchants who had escaped from the hands of the refugees, because of their own losses, naturally hated them to the bone and would go to the ninja villages to post missions to vent their hatred.
"Nawaki's side has at least two more hours."
"In that case, I'll go and check on Tsunade."
Thinking that he hadn't seen her in a long time, he glanced at the three of them, and then his figure disappeared in an instant.
…
"Silver Heron Grass, Julia Flower, Celestial Lotus..."
In a white tent, Tsunade went through the bags one by one, identifying the herbs inside.
However, the expression on her face was not good.
"Are the ninjas in the village all fools?"
After going through all the herbs, she couldn't help but roar.
"I've told them long ago that although the antidote for the salamander poison has been created, some of the necessary ingredients can only be found in the Land of Rain."
"It's been three years since I created the antidote, right?"
"And now you're telling me that in three years, you've only collected this little?"
"With just this much, how many antidotes can be made?"
"Once Hanzo of the Salamander appears on the battlefield, do you not know what will happen to our comrades who lack the antidote?"
"Lady Tsunade..."
Being yelled at like this, the Konoha ninja's head was drenched in cold sweat.
"This matter was previously handled by Elder Danzo's Root."
"I only recently took over this task, and I've mobilized a lot of forces, asking many merchants to go to the Land of Rain to help us collect the herbs."
"However, it's very strange. These herbs, which used to be very common, have seen a drastic price increase recently."
"And some are simply unavailable, out of stock."
"So..."
"Fool!"
Hearing the ninja's words, she couldn't help but curse again.
Because of Li Anshi, her impression of Danzo was not good.
However, for this ninja to actually ask merchants to collect the herbs after taking over the task, she really wanted to crack open his skull and see if it was filled with water.
In fact, if it were the old Tsunade, she might not have thought there was anything wrong with him asking merchants to collect the herbs.
For thousands of years, the supplies that ninjas needed were obtained by exchanging the money they had earned from completing missions for the nobles or merchants.
But ever since she had come into contact with Li Anshi and had been influenced by many of his ideas, she had gained a higher level of insight into the means by which the daimyo, nobles, and merchants controlled the ninjas.
In her opinion, for a ninja to ask a merchant to collect the supplies they needed was a mistake in itself.
What were merchants?
Buying low and selling high was their specialty.
For them, the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish!
In order to obtain more profit, merchants would do anything.
Their sense of smell was very keen.
In fact, some merchants would even manipulate wars from behind the scenes.
Just like the situation on the border of the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire, a part of the reason for it was the secret push of the merchants.
The First Great Ninja War had been over for three years.
The merchants, who were used to reaping the wealth of ninjas and commoners during the war, were very dissatisfied with the current peaceful ninja world.
After all, for people who were used to earning millions or even tens of millions a day, to return to a time of peace where they could only earn millions a month was very uncomfortable.
They were more nostalgic for the times when the people of the ninja world were living in dire straits, when a little bit of food could be exchanged for a large amount of supplies, and then they would use these supplies to get a large amount of wealth from the ninjas...
As early as when Hanzo of the Salamander had risen, the other great ninja villages had noticed him, and after paying a certain price, they had learned that his greatest reliance was on the poison from his salamander.
In order to gain an advantage in future conflicts, the great ninja villages had begun to collect his poison, both openly and secretly, wanting to create a corresponding antidote.
And not surprisingly, among the five great villages, only Konoha's Tsunade had successfully created it.
However, she had never expected that after she had already created the antidote, Elder Danzo would not have collected enough herbs in three years.
No, perhaps he had already collected enough, but because the ninja sent to be stationed at this stronghold was her, in the end, he had withheld the herbs and not given them to the ninja under her command.
And the ninja in front of her was stupid enough.
To actually entrust the collection of the herbs to merchants.
She was certain that the merchants had more herbs in their hands, but they were now waiting for the right price, waiting for the herbs to sell for a higher price before they would sell them.
In fact, she could even imagine that perhaps most of the herbs, these merchants would sell at a normal or slightly higher price.
However, they only needed to jack up the price of a few of them, and in order to make the antidote, Konoha would have to pay a huge price to obtain these normally very common herbs.
"With just this much, how many antidotes can be made?"
"What on earth gave them the illusion that I can make the antidote without the herbs?"
"Without the antidote, how did those Root ninjas have the guts to start a conflict with the Rain?"
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and she stomped her foot down.
Boom!
With a huge roar, the ground around her was instantly stomped into a huge crater, and black cracks spread out from under her foot for more than ten meters.
"What's going on?"
Feeling the commotion, many of the ninjas in the camp immediately looked towards the tent.
Upon discovering that it was Lady Tsunade's handiwork, their expressions all changed, and they quickly moved away from the camp.
Over this period of time, everyone had come to understand her quite well.
When she was in a temper, she wouldn't distinguish between right and wrong, but would just vent her anger.
At that time, whoever was by her side would be the unluckiest.
And with her skill in medical ninjutsu, she could quickly heal the injuries of the ninjas she had wounded.
However, everyone could also understand.
Who would have thought that Elder Danzo would actually play tricks on the most crucial issue?
As the ones who had the most contact with the Rain, they knew the terror of Hanzo of the Salamander.
In fact, most of the intelligence in Konoha about the Rain and Hanzo had been collected by them.
Therefore, they also agreed very much with her roar.
In terms of the quality of the ninjas alone, the Rain could not compare to the great villages.
And it was precisely because of this that, in order to reduce the losses of the Rain, almost every major battle, Hanzo would lead the charge, rushing into the enemy's formation.
Coincidentally, the poison of his summon, the salamander, was a poison mist that could cause large-scale casualties. If there was no corresponding antidote, any ninja who inhaled it would die within a short period of time.
This made the terror of the salamander on the battlefield no less than Li Anshi's.
Although the title "Demigod" was started by the Rain and some of the small villages, the great villages had also tacitly acknowledged it.
In their minds, if an antidote that could counter the salamander's poison could not be created, then Hanzo would also become an unsolvable enemy.
"Huh?"
Just as he appeared behind her, he felt the boiling chakra in her body.
"Is Tsunade... facing an enemy?"
He immediately thought, and a few daggers slid into the gaps between his fingers.
Instantly, all the ninjas within a hundred-meter radius felt a jolt run through their bodies. A huge sense of crisis made them break out in a cold sweat.
They could feel as if a very sharp dagger was being held to their necks, and that this dagger would pierce through at any moment.
However, this feeling soon dissipated.
Because, through the sensation from the daggers, he did not find any enemies within a hundred-meter radius.
"What's wrong, Lady Tsunade?"
"Why are you so angry?"
Putting away his daggers, he came before her and asked curiously.
"Huh? Anshi, what are you doing here?"
"Where's Nawaki?"
Seeing him, Tsunade took a deep breath, calmed her anger, and glanced behind him, but did not see Nawaki.
"They're on a mission right now."
"I sensed the spatial mark on you, so I just dropped by to see you."